Naruto : Struggle Of Childhood

Deception

Just be careful, and make sure that you burn this letter. Tsunade will kill me if she sees it.

Jiraiya.

"Anything you want to say back?" Gamakichi asked.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "Tell him that I'll do as he says, and tell him that we'll be ok."

"Nothing written?" the toad made sure.

"And face the Wraith of Baa-chan?" Naruto snorted, "No way."

"Alright, see you," Gamakichi waved.

"Bye," Naruto called as the toad disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto reread the letter, looked at the remains of the fire and tossed the first letter in, pocketing the second one. He rested his chin on one hand and bit his lip a little bit.

Something told him that they were in for an up close and personal encounter with this 'Demon of the Mist'.

Hatake Kakashi hadn't liked this mission to begin with.

Actually, Kakashi didn't have as much trouble with the mission as with the team.

He had known early on the Danzou didn't like him. Kakashi was the student of the Yondaime, and the devoted follower of the Sandaime, and Danzou wanted to keep very close tabs on him. Actually, Kakashi was astounded that Danzou hadn't tried to kill him. It wasn't like it would have been the first time that someone in Danzou's way just...disappeared. Most of the Sarutobi family had died already; it was only Asuma and that kid Konohamaru left. Kakashi assumed that he was considered too useful at the moment to be killed and loyal enough so as not to be a real threat.

That hadn't stopped Danzou from saddling him with a Genin team. When Kakashi first noticed that his name was up from every single graduating class, he had developed the perfect counter stratigy. He employed his sensei's old bell test, cheated, and made sure that every single team failed.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Danzou had figured out his tactic.

Team 7, consisted of Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Uchiha Yumi. The Inuzuka family was unquestionably loyal to Danzou, who they saw as the 'alpha'. It made sense that he would be on the team. If Kakashi said or did anything that wasn't considered proper, he would tell his family, who would report to Danzou. The Aburame family was...well it was hard to say what they thought of anything. They seemed to accept Danzou's leadership, if only because he had been elected Hokage. Shino's loyalties were with his parents, but Kakashi had no idea where his parents' loyalty lay. Uchiha Yumi was the real problem. She had transferred to the Academy a year ago, and had had little to no contact with any of the students. This was normal for that family, but her actions during the bell test made him wonder if she had been a ROOT ninja sent to observe him. She had single handedly made sure that the team passed, seeing through all his lies and making the others do the same. Her manner was too controlled for a normal twelve year old girl, and something about her was just...off.

The mission had started normally enough. Kiba had started to moan about lame D-rank missions and wanting to do something worth while, and how he was a ninja now and why couldn't he help with the war. Kiba had been very disappointed when they had been assigned the mission to escort the bridge builder Tazuna back to Wave. To him, this was just a long D-rank.